J'burg T20I: Proteas win toss, ask India to bat first

Johannesburg [South Africa], Feb 18 (ANI): South Africa won the toss and asked India to bat first in first of the three-match T20 International series being played at the Wanderers here on Sunday.

Suresh Raina and Manish Pandey are the new additions to the Indian contingent for the T20I series.

However, the main focus will be on Raina, as he is returning to the squad after he last played in the shortest format for India in February last year.

The veteran since then has struggled to get back into the side because of both form and fitness issues.

Meanwhile, Jaydev Unadkat will come in for injured Kuldeep Yadav while Bhuvneshwar Kumar will also make a return.

The hosts, on the other hand, will play in the absence of their swashbuckling batsman AB de Villiers as he hurt his knee in the last ODI against India.

South Africa, who will aim for redemption after their ODI debacle, will be lead by JP Duminy in the absence of injured regular skipper Faf du Plessis.

Heinrich Klaasen and Junior Dala will debut for South Africa.

Duminy will forefront a relatively less experienced South African side as veteran Hashim Amla and ODI skipper Aiden Markram have been rested.

India is fresh from a 5-1 historical ODI series win against South Africa and will look to extend their white ball dominance here.

The tourists had, earlier, lost the Test series 1-2, but came back strong to thrash South Africa 5-1 in the ODI series.

The T20I series will conclude India's tour of the Rainbow Nation and thus the Men in Blue would look to end it on a high.

The two squads are as follows:

India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli(c), Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, MS Dhoni(wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah

South Africa: JJ Smuts, R Hendricks, JP Duminy (c), D Miller, H Klaasen (wk), F Behardien, C Morris, A Phehlukwayo, D Paterson, Junior Dala, T Shamsi. (ANI)